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Show Grieving Frenchwoman Tends Grave of Quentin Roosevelt By NEWTON C. PARKE, International News Service Staff Correspondent. Corre-spondent. , CHAMERY, 'France, Oct. 11. A wrin-l wrin-l kled-faced, toothless old Frenchwoman, i Madame Marchand, has taken it upon herself to tend the grave of Lieutenant j Quentin Roosevelt, which lies just at the , edge of the tvar-battered village. It is nearly a quarter of a mile from I Madame Marchand's tumbled-down home to the rise of ground where young Roose- velt fell in aerial combat with the Germans Ger-mans in July of 1918. But two or three ! times a week the old lady hobbles down the road with a handful of fresh flowers, throws away the old ones, brushes away any dirt that may have blown against the wooden cross at the head of the grave, bows her head in prayer and turns back to her home. Two of her own sons were killed in the war, she said. The grave of one who died near Chateau Thierry is near by and once every few weeks she makes a pilgrimage to it. The other fell In the Somme fighting, she believes, as he was reported missing. "I like to think that wherever he lies ! some tender hands are caring for my little boy's grave," she said. "For that reason, in n emory of my son, I am going to care for the grave of this American boy who died so far from home as long as I live." The French have set up a wooden sign pointing the way to the Roosevelt plot, which is just off a slightly used road outside out-side the village. When the Germans found the young aviator's body they buried it and set up a wooden cross of identification. The first Americans to reach Chamery supplanted this with another an-other cross and later a wooden fenc.e was built around the grave. The stone marker planted by the 302nd engineers lies a few yards northeast of the grave on the exact spot where Roosevelt fell. It was badly damaged by the wheel of a heavy wheat wagon which ran across its face in the darkness, and, being of very soft stone, can certainly not withstand the erosion of the elements ele-ments but 1 few years. Unless something is done in the meanwhile to erect a permanent per-manent memorial, nothing will remain to mark the spot where Colonel Roosevelt's youngest son died. |